1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a process for the fast cooking of pasta and the like, in particular of dry "spaghetti" and other kinds of filamentary pasta to be consumed immediately and to the automatic apparatus to put the process into practice.
2. Prior Art
In known apparatus food is usually cooked during two steps, the first one taking place in a so-called cooking or pre-cooking chamber which is hydraulically brought into contact with a boiler to receive hot water therefrom in order to carry out the cooking. Then food is discharged into an expansion chamber, under atmospheric pressure, in which cooking terminates during a period substantially as long as the first step. Food ready to be consumed is then unloaded into an appropriate earthenware vessel put at the outside.
This process however is adapted to give an acceptable cooking degree only if it takes place within a period of 10 to 20 seconds longer than one minute. From a commercial standpoint this time is too long and it is difficult to reduce it owing to an improper operation during the first cooking step. This is mainly due to the high differential values in pressure and temperature existing between boiler and cooking chamber that give rise to the formation of dry and/or overheated vapour while water is introduced into said cooking chamber The presence of overheated vapour alters the molecular structure of gluten present in the pasta and it also makes the pasta surface immediately impervious to penetration by water, which remarkably hinders the absorption of water by the latter during the different cooking steps. It is clear that in this way the cooking operation is delayed and in many cases even endangered.